Floor finishes for commercial operations are often formulated to achieve a compromise of what tend to be mutually exclusive properties: high gloss, ease of repairability, slip resistance, scuff resistance, and detergent resistance. Floor finishes designed for use in healthcare facilities, however, have an additional requirement of increasing importance, resistance of the finish to germicides. This additional requirement arises out of concerns about controlling the spread of infectious diseases. Thus, it has become common practice in such facilities to mop floors with germicides to eliminate a potential source of infection. These germicides usually contain either a phenolic derivative or quaternary ammonium salt as the biocidal agent. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 3,836,669.
When used at the proper dilution, the germicides are typically not harmful to floor finishes. However, in an effort to obtain an extra margin of safety, janitorial service staff commonly use germicides at concentrations higher than their label instructions recommend. This practice leads to the finish actually being stripped from the floor. There exists, therefore, a significant need to develop a floor finish which not only meets the stringent performance requirements of a floor polish but also exhibits excellent resistance to stripping by germicides.
According to the present invention, there is provided a floor finish composition formulated to have improved resistance to germicides without compromising floor polish performance requirements. The composition comprises a preservative, a wetting agent, a defoamer, a C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 alkyl carbitol, a plasticizer, a freeze-thaw stabilizer, a low acid styrenated acrylic resin copolymer, a rosin ester resin, a wax, and water. High quality polish performance is achieved particularly where the ratio of rosin ester resin to wax is greater than 1.
Additional objects, features, and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the invention.